Gold Nugget 271 - To Remain Unsettled?
It is thought that inspires affection, moulds character, guides the will, determines conduct, rules the man. We cannot well exaggerate the importance of the relation thought bears to the highest interest of our being. But how are these “thoughts” of ours determined?
Every man’s religious ideas and beliefs, say some, are determined for him by a thousand influences over which he has no control – by early education, by the books that fall in his way, by human associations, native temperament, conformation of brain … There is a measure of truth in this that we dare not ignore. These things have a great deal to do with the matter, and the fact should modify our judgment of the mental position of others in relation to religious truth, and teach us to watch carefully the bearing on ourselves of such influences.
Many of us owe our Christian beliefs far more than we imagine to the force of favouring circumstances. We may well thank God that it is so; for we mourn to think how many things there are that tend to distort the truth and hide it from man’s eyes, so we rejoice that there should be so many channels through which the Light of Life may find its way into the soul.
But however this may be, God holds every one of us under the obligation to think for himself, judge for himself, believe for himself; to use with uprightness of spirit all the means within his reach for the formation of right opinions, to welcome and follow the light that shines from heaven upon his way.. …
Have you true religious ideas and convictions? Translate your thinking into life. … It is in every respect unreasonable, unmanly, and infinitely perilous to allow the question of your religious position to remain unsettled.
The Pulpit Commentary, I Kings p. 451, I Kings 18:21, (J. Waite)
Gold Nugget 271
To Remain Unsettled?
